St. John Custard Doughnut

I was so very excited to try this doughnut from St. John bakery. I've heard a lot about them (mostly from my fellow sweet-loving, awesome sister-in-law), but they have very limited availability, as in they sell out within hours of going on sale. I was lucky enough to have a willing pickup-partner visit their Spitalfields outpost, St. John Bread and Wine, which sells them on Thursdays, Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

The funny thing is he managed to get some in the afternoon (around 2pm) on Friday, so if you're on the hunt for these, that location seems to be the place to hit up--as I had heard that the Druid Street bakery has a tendency to sell out before er...the afternoon, at least.

So here it is, fresh from our fridge, and full o' creamy custard. It was about palm-sized, covered in a fine mist of sugar, and quite heavy. The smell was fried dough, not entirely unexpected in a doughnut.

As you can see, it is absolutely filled with vanilla bean flecked cream, to the very brink. Not convinced, huh? Check this picture out, post just the first bite.

Okay, maybe I was two bites deep, but just lateral bites, I promise! The taste was amazing, ambrosial, light and creamy, and soft with fresh vanilla pod taste. The cream was custard-y in taste, but very much like whipped cream in texture. It really was like vanilla custard flavored cream. When it came to the actual doughnut, my buddy-in-eating insisted it was like a traditional English doughnut (a very good one, of course) but I held firm to my position-it tasted like an elephant ear or a funnel cake...again, a very good one, but it had a distinct extra 'fried' taste to it that I don't recollect in your work-a-day doughnut. Basically, it was amazing. It was like an elephant ear from the fanciest county fair on Earth, filled with cream whipped by the likes of an angel, flavored with fresh vanilla beans and eggs.

In the end, I had two of these doughnuts in a couple of days, and the best one was the one I had that was sort of room temperature. The doughnut itself was super soft and the cream was just light as air. When they were refrigerated, the doughnut had gotten stiffer and the cream slightly more dense--more similar to vanilla pudding or custard than the whipped cream texture it started off with. Don't get me wrong, I'd gladly to eat a rifridgerated one again, but these are definitely best eaten fresh at room temperature. Makes me wish I lived in London! Or, that they served these doughnuts everyday and from every bakery on Earth. They're £2.00 each, so a bit much to have each day really, not even counting in the calories...however, definitely worth grabbing one to try if you're anywhere near the Liverpool St. area from Thursday 'til Sunday.